Marketing Magic

How can podcasting change your life? The better question is how can it not? While that feels *slightly* dramatic, today’s guest Angie Trueblood and I could have certainly made the case for it in this epic episode all about how to pitch and get visibility through podcasts. Angie is a networking and visibility expert who helps entrepreneurs to craft their messages and pitch themselves to podcasts that will get them in front of their ideal audience. 

 

Do you want to reach an even wider audience and get your message in front of more people?

 

Of course! 

 

Then you’ll want to dive into this episode to hear all about how to find podcasts to pitch, getting clear on who you serve, doing your research and what metrics to look at after being a podcast guest. 

 

Angie dives into everything you want to know about how to get on podcasts, why this is such a powerful marketing tool and how to authentically share what you do while providing value.

 

We talk about:

• What Angie does for her clients and how she got started with this work
• Why getting on podcasts is a powerful marketing medium
• How much opportunity is available in the podcasting space
• Taking your expertise and deciphering how to pitch to individual podcasts
• Doing your research to decide if a podcast is worth moving forward on
• What people struggle with when pitching themselves
• How to find podcasts to be on and getting clear on who you serve
• Looking at a combination of metrics to figure out how many engaged listeners they have
• Why you should build relationships with podcast hosts you work with
• Authentically sharing what you do while providing value
• Using a call to action and reminding people to opt-in, join your email list, etc.
• Metrics to look for when you’re trying to gage conversions, engagement, social growth or downloads

 

About Angie Trueblood:

As a networking and visibility expert who fiercely believes in the power of women stepping more fully into their gifts, Angie Trueblood knows that the only 'perfect pitch' is the one that leads with value and focuses on building a genuine connection. Whether she is teaching entrepreneurs how to pitch themselves or working behind the scenes to secure opportunities for them, Angie leverages her super-connector powers to grow businesses and build long-lasting relationships. When she's not working with her clients, she loves exploring Richmond, Virginia's parks and playgrounds with her two kiddos, checking out new restaurants with her hubs, and laughing about motherhood over cocktails with friends.

 

Connect with Angie:

Go Pitch Yourself Podcast | Facebook | Go Pitch Yourself Group | Instagram | Podcast Pitching Roadmap

 

Links:

Ep. 5 | Generating Leads through Podcast Interviews with Nikki Rausch

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Do you have an idea for your business but you just can’t seem to wrap your brain around how you’ll package it up for clients? Does the thought of marketing this new offer make you feel dizzy or uneasy?

Today I am joined by Rachel Bailey, a parenting specialist who helps families to improve their children’s behavior, resilence or confidence. 

Rachel has been struggling to determine the best route for creating an online group program for her business so she can stop trading time for dollars in her one to one practice. But with running such a lucrative 1:1 business, her clients mostly want HER, so how do we introduce this group program in a way that makes it a no-brainer?

We dive into educating prospective clients, her current approach to creating content and my advice for including a call to action in her content. We also chat about creating a content bank to build a consistent marketing strategy and I share a few tips for how she can market her online group programs. 

 

We talk about:

• How Rachel became a parenting specialist 
• What Rachel does for clients and in her work
• Her pricing structure for clients
• Her goal for running groups for clients and moving her business mostly online
• How clients find Rachel through word of mouth and speaking events
• The power that Rachel sees in the group program
• Issues that Rachel runs into 
• Bringing out the long game philosophy rather than the quick fix mentality
• How to teach parents more about their time investments
• Rachel’s approach to creating content
• Figuring out how to offer her services in an online format
• Creating a content bank to pull from to build consistency 
• Establishing a strong call to action in your content
• Running testimonials as a part of your marketing strategy
• Mallory’s advice for how Rachel can market her online groups 

 

About Rachel Bailey:

Rachel Bailey is a Parenting Specialist who has been serving families for over a decade. Besides being a mother of two, she also has a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology a certification in Positive Discipline and has been an ADHD Coach, in-home mentor, and psychotherapist. Currently, Rachel provides tools to parents who have tried "all the things" to improve their kids' behavior, resilience, or confidence... but hasn't yet quite found the strategies that last. She is also committed to conquering the guilt and overwhelm that is associated with parenting today.

 

Connect with Rachel:

Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | YouTube | Your Parenting Long Game Podcast 

 

Quotes:

"I personally think groups are better. You get the same information but being with a group is incredibly powerful. You feel that you're not alone, you realize that other people are going through what you're going through." - Rachel Bailey  "I think the benefit of the group is not only the pricing is lower. But you get to meet these other people and bond with them over something that most parents aren't talking about." - Rachel Bailey  "Parents need to start seeing their kids’ behavior differently." - Rachel Bailey   "When we shift how we see our kids’...

Are you running around trying to do all of the things for your business and feel like it's “too early” to hire?

You may be surprised at what delegating just a few tasks could do to help your business grow. 

Today I am joined by my friend Amalie Shaffer, an integrator and project manager who helps business owners with systems and setting them up for success when building out a team.

She shares how you can decide which tasks to delegate and how having processes in place will make hiring a breeze! 

If you’ve been feeling stuck working in your business instead of on your business, you may want to listen and think about it, it might be time to hire.

 

We talk about:

• Amalie’s transition from the Navy to becoming an entrepreneur
• How to know that it's time to start hiring in your business
• Breaking down your tasks and categorizing them by your strengths and weaknesses
• Understanding what you want to delegate first
• Seeing hiring as an investment rather than an expense
• Mallory’s first hire and how big of a relief it was for her
• Aligning processes with your goals and strategies
• Having processes in place to make hiring a smooth transition
• Amalie’s recommendations for what to do before hiring
• Deciding between who to hire and going with your gut
• Mistakes to avoid when hiring for your team
• What comes in her Hire Your First Contractor Bundle

 

About Amalie Shaffer:

After serving for nearly 7 years in the Navy, Amalie Shaffer transitioned to the Navy Reserves. From there, she transitioned right into entrepreneurship with a professional organizing business. After finding online resources to take her business skills digital, Amalie decided to shift gears and offer digital marketing services.

 

Amalie’s always had a serving heart- she’s offered her time to EMT services, senior dogs, and other forms of volunteerism. So, it made perfect sense to her to serve online entrepreneurs like you with her strategy and organization skills.

Now that she’s been an entrepreneur for several years and a master of chaos for a decade, she can quickly pinpoint the neglected systems and processes that are keeping you from diving into your own blue ocean and fulfilling your purpose.

With Amalie as your Integrator and project manager, you can be confident knowing your businesses will reach uncharted territories and break into new revenue streams with effective and efficient teams.

 

Connect with Amalie:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn |  Podcast | Hire Your First Contractor Bundle

 

Quotes:

"Building plans is something I'm really good at, I have this ability to see the trees and the forest and down to the details." - Amalie Shaffer  "If you start to feel like you need to hire someone, it's too late." - Amalie Shaffer  "Take your hourly rate and multiply it by the time you spend doing these tasks that you don't like doing. Think about that and think about how much money you could make by delegating those tasks to someone that’s less expensive than what your hourly rate is." - Amalie Shaffer  "I always recommend doing a...

The lie we too often tell ourselves is that we are horrible at numbers. And then we stick our head in the sand and do nothing but hope our numbers will work out in the end. Most of us don’t have a business degree, we went into business because of something we love to do or are great at. So when it comes to figuring out what the jumble of numbers are telling us, it is confusing and scary and we often are afraid of masking the wrong move. Today’s guest is going to change all that. 

 

Danielle Hayden and I talk about how to make tracking numbers fun and empowering, how to figure out what your KPIs are and how to start some healthy number habits for your business today.

If you’ve been needing to pay more attention to the numbers in your business, you’ll want to take a listen!

 

We talk about:

• Danielle’s background in corporate accounting and why she is so passionate about numbers
• Realizing that so many entrepreneurs needed a CFO and deciding to start her firm
• Helping entrepreneurs to wrap their head around their numbers and using that to make business decisions
• Her advice for those who don’t know where to start with their numbers
• The reports that you should be looking at within your accounting system
• Being strategic about business expenses that you could help come tax season
• Why you need to pay yourself as an entrepreneur
• How Danielle works with clients and when they come to her
• Examples of client breakthroughs that she’s had

 

About Danielle Hayden:

Danielle Hayden is a reformed corporate CFO (chief financial officer) who is on a mission to help rule-breaking female entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can gain the confidence needed to create sustainable profits. After spending 10+ years in the board room as a corporate finance officer, Danielle is now in her sweet spot as the co-owner of Kickstart Accounting, Inc. where she helps business owners with bookkeeping, financial analysis, and education and as the author of the Profit Planner book series. When Danielle isn’t crunching numbers on her clients’ behalf or crafting the next iteration of the Profit Planner, you can find her hanging with her two kids as she inspires them to lead their fullest lives or doing any, and almost every fitness-related activity ranging from Spartan races to pilates.

 

Connect with Guest:

Website | Profit Planner | Instagram | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook

Resources: To snag Danielle’s book Foundations for 15% off, use the code: Her second book released next week on Oct. 31. You can find out how to purchase it here.

When you think about big businesses such as Apple or Starbucks, you can immediately think about their logo, brand colors and exactly what it looks like.

Why wouldn’t you want that same brand recognition for your own business? Today I am joined by Susie Liberatore, the owner and art director of Visions2images Creative Services. She helps entrepreneurs nail down their digital and print branding to create cohesive branding. 

We discuss why branding (like copy) needs to be consistent and repetitive. We also dive into why branding is about what connects with your audience and why you need to stand out to your target audience. 

She shares about her creative process, how she works with clients and her favorite part about being a brand strategist. 

 

We talk about:

• What Susie does in her business and what she creates for clients
• Why your branding needs to be consistent
• How Susie’s branding process works with clients
• Fine-tuning and bringing the logo and branding guide to life
• Standing out and being memorable toward your target audience
• Susie’s favorite part about what she does with clients

 

About Susie Liberatore:

Susie Liberatore is the owner, and art director, of Visions2images Creative Services. She helps established businesses grow their brand awareness by using digital marketing and professional branding techniques. With over ten years of agency and corporate experience, she brings businesses visions to life, while watching their return on investment increase.

Susie helps businesses grow their brand presence and connect with their target audience. For the last decade, she brings experience as a former art director in the corporate world bringing it to the businesses of the different online platforms.

Her fields of design expertise are branding development and social media marketing. She is the face and voice of Visions2images. Susie is an entrepreneur, she has several businesses and wears many hats for all of them. She has been able to help businesses thrive and grow with her help.

 

Connect with Susie:

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

 

Quotes:

"Essentially I make everything pretty for people, have it come together and make sure their branding is consistent and on point." - Susie Liberatore"When you talk about branding you have to make sure you have all of the same colors portrayed." - Susie Liberatore"Regardless of if it's $20 your investing or thousands, it doesn't matter at the end of the day - if you have that established, people will invest in you." - Susie Liberatore"I always tell people it's not about you, it's about your audience." - Susie Liberatore"It's okay to say the same thing over and over again about your business because you're going to get bored of it but people need to hear the consistency for the copy of your brand - and it's the same thing with the visual aspect." - Mallory Schlabach"Consistency and repetition feel really boring but they're the pillars of what you do whether it's branding, copy or anything." - Mallory Schlabach   About Marketing Magic:

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to

LinkedIn was once just a tool for finding jobs in the corporate world. Not anymore!

This social network is quickly becoming a top resource for people to find and connect with amazing leads in their network. 

Today’s guest, Deborah Ager, shares how she uses LinkedIn in a non-traditional way to find and connect with clients for her business where she helps people develop business-building books. 

If you’ve ever wondered if you’re using LinkedIn to its full potential or if you’re curious about the book writing process, you’ll definitely want to hear this episode! 

 

We talk about:

• How Deborah got started with helping clients with their books
• Deborah’s typical clients and what she does to help them
• How Deborah uses LinkedIn to find clients and connect with them
• Learning to interact with people on LinkedIn in a way that grows your business
• Being open to experimenting with your online platforms
• The process for helping her clients write their books
• What mindset barriers her clients overcome 
• Creating a win-win-win solution for herself, clients and readers
• Where clients meet her in the book writing process

 

About Deborah Ager:

As a 25-time+ book collaborator, Deborah Ager guides clients to create business-building books so they get more speaking engagements and sales and share their message more widely. Her clients like that she has 20+ years of experience in marketing because it helps them bake marketing into the book from the start. She's the founder of the Book Activation Method, her signature program, which combines her experience in book development, content strategy, and marketing.

 

Connect with Deborah:

Website | LinkedIn | 3 Secrets to Create a Book People Want to Read

 

Quotes:

"One of the most important things is finding out who you are writing to." - Deborah Ager   "It's okay to feel weird. Just go ahead and feel weird. Feel uncomfortable. Feel self-doubt and then just go ahead and do it because each time you do it you're going to feel less strange and after a while, it will start to feel normal." - Deborah Ager   "LinkedIn is just not a platform that you can just go on and post something and then never engage with other people, you could do it but then you'll just end up not getting much engagement back." - Deborah Ager   "The projects I've worked on help women create secure financial futures." - Deborah Ager  "I feel like LinkedIn is such a deep platform." - Deborah Ager "All sales and marketing come out of connections that we create with people, and those connections have to be genuine." - Deborah Ager "This is what I'm doing is helping people achieve that vision of becoming an author." - Deborah Ager About Marketing Magic:

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community,

You know EXACTLY who your ideal client is, but sometimes you feel like you can’t quite reach them. 

If you’ve ever felt like you can’t quite get your message in front of your ideal client then you’ll want to hear the tips shared on this episode. 

On today's on-air strategy session, I spoke with Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer here in North Carolina.

We spoke about her ideal client and why she loves working with southern brides.  She shares how she’s used giveaways to lead people into her business and where she’s currently feeling stuck.

I shared a few of my best marketing practices that would help her to uplevel her business including how she could upsell her products, build relationships and partnerships with other local vendors and getting couples to commit to doing a wedding.

We talk about:

• How Kristin got into wedding photography
• Kristin’s ideal bride
• Where she feels the most stuck at in her business
• Using competitions to lead people to her business
• Building out her pipeline for future weddings
• Creating partnerships with other local wedding vendors
• Using upselling techniques 
• How Kristin gets couples to commit to a wedding
• How to go above and beyond for other vendors
• Mallory’s advice for lead generation

From Kristin:

I'm Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer based in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

I am 30 years old and a native North Carolinian!  I am an entrepreneur, artist, photographer, and designer. My obsession with art and everything creative means your session is truly exciting for me (and you!) Each session is personalized and designed with each individual in mind.  While I strive to provide amazing portraits you will look back on for years to come, the most important thing is the experience. 

My love for photography began when I received my first camera when I was a young child.  I was OBSESSED with that blue Fisher-Price camera! My Papa was a huge influencer in my photography.  I loved watching slides and looking through photos he took of my Nana. A part of them will live on forever in photographs, which is something I love about photography. 

Connect with Kristin:

Website | Wedding Photography Instagram | Newborn Photography Instagram | Personal Instagram

About Marketing Magic:

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

Does someone locally do exactly what you do, or close enough to make you jelly and insecure? Don’t worry. We’re about to do something about that right now.

This is part 2 in the Clients In Your Backyard series we’re doing right now on the podcast. Last week we talked about some ideas for how to start thinking locally. Today we’re going to dive into some of big objections that people face or are afraid of when they think of local marketing. Before I get started, let me just say if you don’t have a local business or want to reach a local market, this episode absolutely applies to you because let me guess - you too have competitors that you see and run into and probably drive you batty. Keep listening. This should help. We’ve all run into some people who seem to do the exact thing we do and it irks us. Not that we think we’re so special that we’re the only person in the world doing something, but because that fear rushes in that someone could possibly be better than us, or take our clients -- or the age-old fear even if we don’t usually talk about it: they’ll like us better. When I polled the members of my #girlboss Facebook group, this was one of the big challenges a lot of businesses with a local presence face. So let’s talk about it. Your competition is irrelevant. Don’t flinch when I say it. It’s true -- even if hard to swallow. In theory, it sounds so easy. Sure, Mallory -- just forget all about them and carry on. Well, kinda.

Here’s how to tackle your competition head on and win. There are two schools of thought, and sometimes we do both when dealing with our competitors. 1) Know what makes you different. Is it your niche, your process, your framework, your timeline, your deliverables, your quality, your attention to detail -- they cannot be mirroring you, so what makes you different? Knowing this alone will give you buckets of confidence to stop worrying about the others. 2) Know what they’re doing and do it better. This one is tricky because there is a fine line between following your competition and getting messed up in the head because of it or accidentally copying. Both are dangerous to a growing business. What I mean by “Know what they’re doing and do it better” is -- how do they typically operate, serve customers, etc. -- and where are there gaps? There is usually so much opportunity to fill the gap and needs that it also makes your competition irrelevant. 3) Stop caring what they do I recently counseled a client of mine to immediately stop following a main competitor on all channels for 60 days. While it’s good to know what they’re doing -- it’s also healthy to put blinders on if what they’re doing shakes your own confidence. You know what you’re doing. You are more than qualified. You can get as many or more clients than them. The biggest difference? Time and confidence. Own what you do, and if it takes unfollowing them for 60 days or more, than do it. 4) Collaborate with them This sounds crazy, but because I know that what you do and how you do is unique to you -- I also know that there is space in most niches for collaboration on projects, events, networking, referrals and so much more. When you draw the line in the sand and see them as competition and someone to do battle with, it cuts out the collaborative part of doing business that could be even more lucrative than “winning.” 5) Don’t out-do them because you can. There’s a time and a place for being more advanced and forward-thinking than your competitors. But being the frontrunner also means you teach them how to do what you’re doing well, and it leads to expensive campaigns, advertising venues you don’t want to go to battle in and spending your marketing dollars on things that don’t need spent - if you can avoid it. Work smarter at how you promote yourself and get in front of clients, but don’t worry about beating them on all platforms at all times -- it creates more work for you than necessary, especially on local marketing,...

Do you get your customers locally? Unless you’re a local small business, honestly, most people don't do it at all. But it's the fastest way to really grow and test out your business. And that’s why we’re talking all about how to get clients in your own backyard today.

So before we dive into some strategies to think about when diving into the local pool, I want to give you a few reasons why I love local marketing and growing your business locally so much. Going local allows you to test the waters and see #1 if your offers are getting any bites #2 - if your messaging is attracting your true ideal clients. 

 

I love to invite the clients that I work with to try this because it forces you to jump into your business with both feet and forces you to take action a whole lot faster than you would if you're like, “Well, let me build this funnel first, and create this opt in and then write the sequence and then do the job. That's about great and well. But if you don't even know IF works and if ONE person is interested, and you might be wasting a whole bunch of time and/or money.

#3 - It speeds up the know, like, trust factor. Being face to face and meeting someone is a huge differentiator you have someone right in front of you looking for your skill set versus searching online and googling and a million results come up and sorting through it for the next six months. When you are in person or in proximity to each other, you AND the potential customer decide in the first conversation if they like you, could they potentially hire you, and should they find out more. 

 

How to get started with finding clients in your own backyard:

Okay, so first one is to collaborate with local businesses that have the same audiences but do different things.

 

This is exact same thing you would say to someone with an online business, right? Ask yourself questions like: - Who would you collaborate with? 

- Who could you do something like a summit with, but locally? 

- Who could you either connect with or who can connect you to more ideal clients? 

 

So think about local businesses that come to mind where you both serve the same type of audience or there's some kind of crossover, that's a great place to start. 

 

Start connecting in places where can you find your ideal clients. 

 

Ask yourself: Where can I find influencers in my city? Where can I find ideal clients? Those are the two places that I hang out: where influencers are or where my ideal peeps are. So I either 1) create my own group or 2) go to networking groups where my ideal clients are. A quote that keeps coming up lately for me that rings true for this episode is: “Your net worth is your network… which is 100% accurate for local marketing.”

 

We all know we have friends and acquaintances locally who know everyone. You want to know these people. Become friends of them.  Cheer them on. Get on their radar! *Also, here’s permission for you that it doesn’t and won’t happen overnight, and that’s OK. Making these key connections and relationships takes time -- so know you’re doing it right if you’re building a real relationship.

One thing I know will come up in your heads if you’re introverted and/or hate mingling is: That sounds really really hard. I don’t know where or how to show up at an event with strangers. First, pick an event you actually want to go to and talk to someone you would like to meet in person, like real life and then just be yourself and talk to people you would want to be friends with. 

 

I think about it like this: I see that woman over there... Would I invite her over to my messy house so we could drink wine out of plastic cups? That's a good filter for me, because if I feel comfortable doing that, then I know she's likely not going to judge me and we both probably have some similar interests -- which are two...

Geek alert! What happens when you get two marketers into a room? THIS! Today’s guest is my friend and fellow marketer Mary Czarnecki -- who has impressive brands behind her name that she’s worked with and taught workshops too (like Johnson and Johnson, Starbucks, and WebMD). In the show notes below, I've pulled out some nuggets in Q & A format. Enjoy! Mallory: What’s a huge question people tend to ask you first? Mary: So the thing I really work with people on is helping them get out of that shiny object overwhelm. 

So so many times, my first conversation with someone is, Hey, can you tell me about Facebook ads? Or hey, can you tell me how to do my social media? Hey, can you figure you know, someone told me I need an email? Why do I need an email list?

And so the first kind of opening the mind moment, for a lot of business owners I talked to, is that someone has told them to do something, or that they should be doing something that they're coming out of the space of overwhelm, or, you know, kind of a lack of confidence, because they're amazing at what they do, right? They’re confident that they can deliver, whatever it is, they're an expert in. But then all of a sudden, someone has said something to them, or they've read something that's now taken a knock at their kind of expert business owner confidence. 

And they think that this tactic, this thing, this one platform or activity, they're missing out on or they should know about, or their competition is going to do and then steal over all their clients. 

And so usually my question conversations are starting at the tactical level, but what I love doing is bringing people back their confidence by bringing the conversation up to the strategic level. 

 

Mallory: This is perfect. It sounds like something I heard a few years ago by Val Geisler about just-in-time learning vs just-in-case learning.

When we’re unsure about what the best next move is, as business owners we typically default to learning something new or needing a new shiny tactic to make it all better. 

That's what I see a lot with clients, too, is they have all these ideas, muddled in their head. They're trying to consume stuff. But there's nothing to be put in practice because there's just so much learning taking place. 

So the new filter becomes “What do you need to know right this minute to do your goals you just talked about for the next 90 days?” 

So the new filter becomes “What do you need to know right this minute to do your goals you just talked about for the next 90 days?” 

- Mallory Schlabach

Mallory: Let’s talk about some must-dos small business owners and entrepreneurs need to focus on for marketing: 

Mary: You need a roadmap that really breaks your marketing plan down into a system where you're actually looking at the conversion equation to figure out okay, you know, how am I literally bringing people into my world? How am I engaging them? How am I educating them so that they feel good making a decision to work with me? And then what am I literally offering them so it's, it's creating this kind of connection, nurture and conversion system, but on a level, that's not going to burn you out on a bunch of different route trials, or testing ideas.

Make sure your offers you’re putting out into the world and what you’re selling are actually tapping into their biggest hot button need so that you're not just talking to like, lower-level issues. Too many times we try to solve something that’s only painful enough to whine about -- not painful enough to do anything about it. 

Find out what your market wants to buy. So many businesses put products out that they think are going to sell but the only focus group they've consulted is themselves, they